It has never been easier to manufacture the appearance of trust. AI-generated people, artificial images, synthetic testimonials, and vague claims can make a product look more credible than it is. That harms consumers, and it harms the honest brands that invest in doing the real thing.
We publish independent, evidence-led research, and practical guidance for consumers and brands. Our goal is not to make people distrust everything. It is to help everyone know what deserves trust.
Why this matters
We are witnessing a global and massive change in how products are sold, advertised and reviewed. We always knew that the children who grew up in front of screens would one day become an important group of consumers. Now we are living it.
Everything is in place for the digital age of selling: advertising, commerce and attention, online and around the clock. E-commerce is changing, and AI has brought that change so quickly that we are not able to keep up with all of it. By the time I finish writing this text, a few more things will have changed.
That is why I personally believe it matters to have standards, rules and a shared sense of decent behaviour towards customers. It matters to understand how to use the AI tools that are now available to everyone. Anybody can create an advertisement in a few clicks. Done. But it also matters to be able to separate what is real from what is fake, which claim stands up and which is false advertising.
That is why I built this page: to highlight why this is important, and to offer my own perspective as someone who has spent his working life thinking about how consumers, customers and brands act and behave. Especially now, in this unfamiliar and, I would say, slightly chaotic passage into the digital and agentic era.
Emir Ramic
The author
Emir Ramic is an award-winning packaging and brand professional with more than 20 years of experience. He studied marketing at the University of Tuzla, focusing on consumer behaviour, and currently leads design and offline marketing at etikett.de.
He founded Trustwashing.com and wrote the 2026 Trustwashing Reports from a simple conviction: trust should be earned through evidence, transparency and real human experience, not manufactured.
Trustwashing.com is an independent, self-funded research and educational initiative published in Emir's personal capacity. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or produced on behalf of his employer or any commercial organisation. No external organisation influences its topics, findings or conclusions.
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